LRCX
Wall Street’s new number
Stifel Nicolaus decided Lam Research deserves a bigger number on the sticky note: $300 per share, up from $280, while keeping its Buy rating intact. That implies roughly 13.8% upside from the prior close, so the analysts are still waving the green flag rather than tapping the brakes.
The earnings backdrop is doing some heavy lifting
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Lam also just posted a quarter that looked pretty healthy: EPS came in at $1.27 versus $1.17 expected, and revenue hit $5.34 billion, up 22.1% year over year. On top of that, management guided Q3 2026 EPS to 1.250–1.450, which gives investors a fresh yardstick to obsess over.
But the plot twist is the insider selling
Here’s the part that makes the story feel a little less champagne toast, more mixed signals: CFO Douglas Bettinger sold 50,057 shares worth about $11.2 million. That doesn’t automatically mean anything sinister — executives sell for all kinds of boring personal reasons — but when a stock is already flying, insider sales can make you squint a little harder.
Big picture
Lam is still looking like a Wall Street favorite: analysts are broadly bullish, ownership is heavily institutional, and the latest earnings beat gives the bulls more ammo. But after a big run, the stock now has to keep proving it can justify that shinier price target instead of just enjoying the applause.